Saturday, September 15, 2012

Atheism vs Black Atheism: Too gay to be a 'Black Atheist of Atlanta'

A few months prior this column brought you an article titled “The Black Anti-gay Atheist of Atlanta” where it spotlighted the homosexual views of two “black” atheists Blackson and Ankhkakek. The views in this case are against being gay in a harsh manner but recent statements made on their weekly live public access show, toward the gay community, should make the LGBTQ in Atlanta nervous because lack of tolerance should not have to equal lack of respect.
A few things must be mentioned so there is a base understanding because there are some concepts which these two atheists consider different.

First they consider themselves “black” atheists which means they don’t believe in a God which now their mindset and energy is channeled to overturning global white supremacy. In other words, their efforts are to uplift and educate the black community to solve the problems facing the African-American nation to date.

Let’s step away from this reference for a moment and answer the question why is this topic is important to the gay community. For months this column has brought up the trend of gay Americans turning to Atheism for obvious reasons. When you have religion and God which are supposed to be saving elements in life, being used by those with anti-gay agendas then it is easy to see why gay people don’t want to believe in God. As a community gay people are being discriminated against by the repentatives of the most high so turning to Atheism seems to be a logical course of action for a lot of gay individuals. If this shift to Atheism is more than a trend, then the LGBTQ needs to be informed and cautious as to what is in store because some “enlightened” atheists are still prejudice against gay people.

So, let’s return to the concepts of the Black Atheists of Atlanta which if you are gay, you can’t be a black atheist by the standards set by Blackson and Ankhkakek. Being gay is the same as believing in God in the minds of these two and all that believe in the message these men convey. They believe both being gay and religion used to enslave black people and to halt the reproductive trail which black scholars consider the original path. That means, for all you black gay American that want to turn to Atheism, there is no place for you in Black Atheism so you have to turn to basic atheist groups like the Black Atheists of America or the Atheist Experience on You Tube.

But, here are a few funny things about this whole atheist understanding. Atheism is a lack of belief in a God. That is it, there is nothing to come too or try to find. All this talk about being a black atheist is just using Atheism as a platform for other agendas. In some circles they call it “Atheism Plus”. A lot of hate groups have used Atheism as a platform for years and many more will use the same format for years to come. It is the same as gay-rights in politics. Gay marriage is a platform for politicians to capture voters and not to further the liberty of gay Americans as it should be.

Now, before we go any further, the Black Atheists of Atlanta is neither a hate group nor homophobic but there is no doubt they are anti-gay. In fact the group supports conventions dealing with the “problem” of homosexuality in the black community. But isn’t labeling gay people a problem a large issue in the black community which ostracizes gay black people from the heritage they identify with?

It seems this is all a vicious cycle in some form. You throw off the shackles of religion to enlighten your mind and to step towards something that seems more unconditional. Now that your mind is “lighter” as a person you want to replace all that conditioning with finding yourself in some fashion. As a black gay person you revert back to the unity you are most comfortable with because being black, gay and atheist is terribly scary by yourself. You come to find out that there is no room for you at the black atheist table because they have conditions on your Atheism and they are very discriminatory.
Personally, there is some comfort in knowing that we don’t know everything and something soothing about enjoying the ignorance of believing something more powerful does. It definitely is a whole lot simpler and less hateful.